Heavy Duty Trucking, March 2018

WASHINGTON WATCH billion would go to a new Federal Capital Revolving Fund which the White House said will reduce inefficient leasing of federal real property which would be more cost effective to purchase Another 50 billion of the 200 billion in direct federal funding would be devoted to a new Rural Infrastructure Program The bulk of these dollars would be allocated to governors giving states the flexibility to prioritize their communities needs As for cutting away at red tape the Trump plan includes measures that allow environmental review and permitting decisions to be delegated to the states and let federal agencies divest assets that can be better managed by state or local governments or the private sector Trump also wants to provide more flexibility to transportation projects that have minimal federal funding but are currently required to seek federal review and approval In addition he wants to streamline projects through various means including by establishing a one agency one decision structure for environmental reviews shortening the environmental review process to two years while still protecting the environment and eliminating certain redundant and inefficient provisions in environmental laws In a statement on the plans release House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep Bill Shuster R PA hit on both the need for bipartisan action on Capitol Hill to pass such a measure and quite specifically to fix the Highway Trust Fund issue An infrastructure bill needs to be bipartisan fiscally responsible and make real long term investments in our nation said Shuster By addressing the long term sustainability of the Highway Trust Fund exploring new ways to invest and ensuring the fast delivery of projects we can rebuild and improve our highways water infrastructure public buildings rail transportation and other infrastructure Shuster heads up just one of 11 House and Senate committees that may write legislation touching upon one element or another of the overall Trump Infrastructure plan Ultimately it will be up to Congress to turn all some or none of Trumps infrastructure proposals into law Seattle port truckers buy time to get cleaner trucks After a threatened walkout by independent drivers who work out of the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington port officials struck a deal with truckers over their concerns about the Clean Truck Program that would ban trucks that dont meet 2007 emissions standards While the deadline for the Clean Truck Program was initially Jan 1 after a meeting that month the ports decided to adjust and possibly extend the deadline Drivers met with representatives from the Northwest Seaport Alliance which runs the two ports to protest the April 1 deadline On Feb 6 a public meeting was held to discuss how the ports could move toward clean air goals while considering all parties involved At that time according to a Journal of Commerce report the two sides reached a compromise that keeps the April 1 implementation date but continues to grant access to noncompliant truckers until the end of the year so long as they are in the process of buying clean trucks After an earlier meeting some independent driver groups passed out flyers and posted on social media calls for a walkout that would threaten to shut down operations at the port according to a report posted by Investigate West Back in 2007 the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma launched the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy as a comprehensive plan to reduce emissions from all aspects of port operations including trucks ships and rail Through this it put into place the Clean Truck Program fixing the 2018 deadline for emissionscompliant trucks Adding to the pressure on both drivers and ports is proposed state legislation HB 2601 which would force the ports to comply with the Clean Truck Program The bill was created because state legislators felt that certain ports were not living up to their commitments to reduce emissions and improve air quality Whether or not this legislation moves forward may hinge on the ports coming up with a concrete strategy for moving forward with the emissions rules One proposal would have the emissions enforced through container terminal leases As companies sign new leases the ports would add an addendum to the lease requiring terminals to turn away trucks that dont meet the standards So far this has been a voluntary effort and we all want to reduce port related emissions said Tara Mattina communications director for the Port of Tacoma and the Northwest Seaport Aliiance Weve been working on it for 10 years so its not like A deal that thwarted a threatened walkout by port truckers did nor resolve the core issue How can clean air goals be met equitably for all affected PHOTO ISTOCKPHOTO COM LFREYTAG HDT MARCH 2018 14 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM

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